HMD Global: No Official Bootloader Unlock Method for the Nokia 8

A lot of people have a soft spot for the Nokia brand due to the company’s history in the cell phone market. Before smartphones were a thing, Nokia was a big player in the mobile phone business, with millions of devices sold around the world. As smartphones took over, the dominance of Nokia fell to the wayside. Eventually, Microsoft acquired the company’s phone business, but that venture died down as well once Microsoft started to give up on the Windows Mobile business. Some of the founding members of Nokia branched off to form HMD Global, and this fledgling company secured a licensing agreement to start selling smartphones with the Nokia brand name.

They’ve ticked a lot of the right boxes to fancy our interests, but one piece of the puzzle has been left out: the bootloader. Juho Sarvikas is the Chief Product Officer at HMD Global, and in a recent tweet speaking about the Nokia 8 he confirmed they would not be offering an official bootloader unlock method “due to security.” While this could change in the future, this announcement is disappointing for those of us who may have wanted to flash a custom ROM or kernel onto the device.